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{WARNING: This is a GIGANTIC post}

I loved, Loved, LOVED being home with my family for almost a month!

Let me introduce the Crew....

Stephanie Rachelle
aka: Steph, Stephie
Description: Gorgeous & Extremely Talented Sister

Andrew Christopher

aka: Drew, Andy, D

Description: The one who Acts tough, but has the softest heart.

Benjamin Russell
aka: Handsome Ben, Ben, Boy
Description: Twin #1- The Sport Star & Sly, Mischievous one


Matthew Thomas
aka: Matt, Bud
Description: Twin #2 - The Artist & Blatantly Mischievous one


Joshua Kent
aka: Josh, Joe, Jojo Mojo, Babe, JB
Description: The one who can get away with almost anything because he's so dang cute.

Second, Let me explain the way The Martins do Family Vacations...

We don't go exploring, or off to extravagant places. Nor do we spend tons and tons of money.
Dad takes a week off of work, the kids are split into pairs and then each pair gets a certain amount of money to plan a day of the vacation. (Smart Parents huh?) It's a BLAST! We love it!

For this particular vacation we started things off in the swimming pool... and this is what happened...

This is WAY HARDER than it looks! My brothers are BUFF!

Tuesday we went to the Temple to do Baptisms for the Dead as a Family (feel free to ask me if you don't know what that is) as the Twins had just turned 12. Josh was the only one missing. It was a beautiful experience to have us there in the Temple as a Family!!!

I'll Preface Wednesday by saying that we are a very "Crafty" Family...
We made memory books... here we are working hard to finish them! (Mine's still not done!)



On Thursday, we went to visit my Great Grandpa Shelley. I love him SO much! My Grandmother passed away a few years ago and he misses her greatly. He is a Wonderful Man with TONS of Wisdom to pass on. He will be 90 years old in November. I hope that I am able to see him again soon!


On Friday- OH FRIDAY! We had THE MOST FUN DAY! We decided to make a Family Painting.
(My mom is Brave.) We traced our hands on contact paper, and stuck them on the canvas, and we all had a different paint color - we made tons of brush strokes and then we rolled marbles around on the canvas, and THEN we splattered more paint on it...


Needless to say, we "accidentally" got a little messy...


We loved the outcome! And then mom put our hands that we peeled off of the canvas in the kitchen. Haha!


On Saturday, we did Facials. Baha. The boys were good sports.


Then, that night we played Chubby Bunnies. OH MY! SERIOUSLY, all you have to say is, "We should play Chubby Bunnies" and we are all in stitches on the floor. We don't even have to play it.

*Note to Family- these are ONLY pictures of us LAUGHING AT EACH OTHER not of the people stuffing Mallows in their mouths!

PS: those marshmallows in my hand...well the white one is one of the "Jumbo" ones...the pink one is a modern marvel.

It was a GRAND VACATION.

I was happy to have a couple more weeks at home. One night, Josh and I were the only ones home and I am well aware that he LOVES to play games. He is ALWAYS begging me to play games when I come home. So I said, " Hey Josh! Do you want to Play a game?" Instantly his adorable little face lights up and he goes, *GASP* "What Game?!"
"You Choose!"
"OK!!!! MONOPOLY!!!"

Haha, what did I do?!
We got out the game and set it up (He's Pro) and I ask him how you win...with 7 year old rules you never know what you're going to get... "You win when the other person runs out of money."

We start playing and every property is bought and ends up with at least 4 houses or a hotel on it. I'm playing pretty fairly (spending money a little faster than he is but not too much, I still want to win!) and all of a sudden, I land on "Community Chest". What did the card say? Not a whole lot:

You're being charged for Road Repairs, $40 for each house and $115 for each Hotel.

I HAD 12 HOUSES AND 9 HOTELS!!!!

UGH, I lost BIG TIME. And the next thing I hear is

"I BEAT THE CWAP OUT OF YOU!!!"
(He has childhood Apraxia, hence the word CWAP)



Oh well. We had Fun! Haha!

I also did a photo shoot of Stephie (more to come on that Later).

It was her Birthday Present. :) She's the Big 1-9.

It was also Drew's Eagle Scout Court of Honor. Funny Story, He must love the women in his Family...He did His project on my Mom's Birthday, had his Board of Review on my Birthday and his Court of Honor on my Sister's Birthday. Haha! Anyway, Congratulations Drew!!!

I also really enjoyed being to hang out with some old buddies! Audrey, her Husband, Dillon & I got to hang out twice in one week, and they set me up with one of their good friends so we could go on a double date- We made pizza, volunteered for United Way by painting kid's faces and making balloon animals, we ate gellato and played Yahtzee.

I also got together with Tana & Ally. We went to lunch and just caught up on each other's lives.

And then I saw Nicole, Tana, Leah, Sam, and Courtney at Courtney's Bridal Shower.

Man, I love my Friends!!!

On the 18th, Mom and I took Stephanie up to EAC. OH MY! I can't even tell you all of the flashbacks I had while I was there! It was good to see a few more old friends and relive old memories. Steph and I have talked on the phone a few times and all you can really hear is high pitched talking because we are so excited about EA. LOVE IT.

I had a couple of relaxing days as my Vacation was coming to a close....the last night I was home, mom sewed a laundry bag for me (I have since been told twice, that while wearing it I look like Santa Clause) while she tried to make me stop pulling out so many recipes to copy. haha! We laughed alot and I ended up sneaking ALOT of Recipes into the computer room to copy.

Matt, my artistic little Brother, went to the Bead Museum with my mom a little while back and has been DYING to make a picture with beads....so he suprised me with this, the night before I left!

He's a Cutie! Thanks Matt!

Well, I guess that's about it! :D